Chapter 25: corruption
Hugo froze, blinking several times to confirm that he was not seeing things.
"A door. It's a fucking door..."
The sheer absurdity of it was staggering. A door, here in the sanctum of his own soul sea?
Divine Aspect or not, it was ridiculous.
The door itself was... strange. It was forged from a smooth, grey metallic material which was featureless save for a complex locking mechanism that spanned its center. Etched into the lock, clear and unmistakable was the symbol of the Omnitrix.
However, The most bewildering part was that it led nowhere; it simply stood alone in the blue vastness, a definitive object in the middle of the maze.
Hugo approached cautiously, his curiosity getting the better of him.
He pressed a hand against its cool unyielding surface.
...
...
Nothing happened.
He tried pushing it, then shoving it with his shoulder. He ran his fingers over the lock, searching for a keyhole or a mechanism but finding none.
He even delivered a frustrated kick, the impact sending a dull thud echoing through the silent expanse.
Nothing worked.
"Just what the Spell is this..." he muttered, frowning at his own choice of words.
His eyes dropped to his arm, to the Omnitrix nestled there. The hourglass symbol was glowing brighter and more intensely than he had ever seen it, pulsing with a light that felt like the relic would explode at any moment.
"It doesn't usually do that..." His frown deepened into confusion.
Then without any warning, an invisible force seized him, violent and absolute. The Omnitrix itself seemed to latch onto the door, magnetically pulling his entire body forward with it. His arm which was bonded with the device slammed flat against the locked surface.
A wave of energy—pure, potent Omni-energy—spasmed from the core of the watch and poured into the door. The transfer was instantaneous over as soon as it began.
The magnetic pull weakened before vanishing entirely leaving Hugo stumbling back, heart hammering against his ribs.
Click.
The sound was soft and cool making The intricate lock disengage, its components sliding apart with a series of quiet, precise clicks.
The metal of the door didn't swing open, instead it unraveled folding in on itself to reveal what it had guarded.
Inside was not a room but a beautiful, shimmering crack in the very fabric of his soul sea. It was a wound of brilliant blue light which was constantly changing its shape and dimensions never settling on one form for too long.
It was like looking into a colored mirror that reflected nothing but pure energy. and that filled Hugo with an unsettling awe.
"...Do I, or do I not?"
He circled the phenomenon, noting with a creeping unease that it was perfectly three-dimensional. No matter what angle he viewed it from, it presented a solid surface with no frame or edges.
"What's the manual for when you find a crack in reality inside your soul sea?"
Yeah, there was none.
After long moments of hesitation, he finally gave in. And With a final steadying breath, Hugo closed his eyes and stepped through.
Weirdly, he felt nothing, The lack of sensation was in itself deeply disappointing.
Opening his eyes, Hugo found himself in a circular chamber that was achingly familiar in its advanced sterile aesthetic.
He recognized it at first sight, It was Galvan tech reminiscent of the lab from his First Nightmare. The floor and ceiling were seamless dark marble adorned with multiple lines that were now blue instead of green.
The most striking features were the ten massive containment pods forming a perfect circle across the room, each one dwarfing him in size.
Each of them was filled with a different slowly shifting liquids that made each one distinct from other, One held a bubbling magenta fluid another a swirling grey gas and a third a viscous silver liquid.
Hugo shivered, a familiar cold dread seeping into his bones as he remembered his own time trapped in a similar pod.
"The Galvans sure love their pods..." he sighed with an annoyed expression on his face before walking over to the pod filled with what looked like molten rock and fire, a churning mix of magma and actual flame.
Although there was something strangly wrong about the liqued...
Squinting, he peered deeper into the radiant liquid.
There, at its heart, he saw it.
A tiny, shifting speck of absolute darkness, Not the natural absence of light but a physical vile darkness that felt repulsive and wrong in way he could not explain.
It was a seed of pure corruption, and as Hugo stared, he felt it staring back with a sliver of strange malevolence focused solely on him.
Hugo took a step back, horrified by the realization that something so vile was nestling within his soul.
"Just what the hell is that..." His breath hitched as He covered his mouth feeling a wave of nausea twisting his stomach.
Then something happened, a voice spoke in his mind with a cold robotic tone that was different from the sweet voice of the spell:
[Corrupted DNA sample detected.]
[Corruption detected...]
[Purifying corruption...]
[Purification impossible...]
[Failsafe activated.]
[Generating a trial...]
"Wha—?!"
[Wielder of the Omnitrix! Preaper for your trial!]
Before Hugo could protest, an unseen force gripped him yanking him forward. His body phased through the solid pod as if it were mist with his consciousness blurring and stretching before being violently ripped from his soul sea.
---
Hugo opened his eyes to absolute nothingnes.
A void but not the empty quiet of the Dream Realm's sky nor was it the same void filled with a myriad of stars.
This was a deeper more profound emptiness as if light and darkness had no room to exist in this place.
Then, a change happened in the endless static voice.
From his rleft arm, a single point of azure light sprouted then just as it was born, the light grew, its light not only illuminating the void but consuming it, rewriting the nothingness with its own blueprint.
In the span of a heartbeat, Hugo found himself standing on a new world.
A world of literal fire.
Although that fire was not mundune, The world itself was made of a Divine all consuming flame, threatening to devour anything within it.
Volcanoes erupted endlessly, painting the sky in shades of orange and yellow, while rivers of magma carved glowing paths through cracked, obsidian plains.
'Don't tell me this is a Nightmare!?' he paled, the memory of his First Nightmare a fresh scar on his psyche.
'No, no, calm down... Surely my Aspect can't generate Nightmare trials... Right?'
That would be absurd and above else, not possible...
Right?
He looked down at himself realizing that He was naked yet strangely enough, he felt no heat whatsoever which made him even more confused.
Although that confusion could be answered after he gets himself preapered.
Hugo willed his Memories into being. [Proto-Tech Armor] encased him in a cool, familiar embrace, the [Black-Pearl Trident] materialized in his hand with a comforting weight, and [Conqueror's Wrath] settled around his neck saturating his body with it's enchantmens.
Hugo let out a shaky breath as he thanked the gods that he still had access to his memories.
The Omnitrix was also still on his wrist, though it felt as if the connection between it and him was a bit strained for some odd reaon.
Then, Hugo suddenly heard movement from behind him.
Spinning his head and body, Hugo watched as a figure emerged from the infernal landscape.
It was a humanoid creature, its body a framework of dark red, rocky skin struggling to contain a core of bright searing magma. A large flame burned where its head should be, it's face replaced by a mask-like face forming within the fire complete with a lashing, fiery tongue.
It was a being of pure, elemental power.
But it was wrong. So terribly wrong, The flames that wreathed it which should have been a brilliant red or orange, were instead the color of the Dark Sea itself—a deep, profane black— A visible aura of corruption clung to it putting a stain on it's beautiful flames.
Hugo had no doubt that the figure was A Nightmare Creature And an incredibly powerful one at that.
'Just my luck...'
Hugo immediately slammed the Omnitrix dial, A flash of blue light washed over him as his body blurred, shifted and expanded.
The transformation into the Chimera Sui Generis was instantaneous As the familiar, monstrous power flooded his limbs but then something else happened.
His fear didn't just lessen, instead it was completely erased.
His racing thoughts, his logical mind and even his very sanity. they all receded, swallowed by one primal drive.
There was the vile creature.
And there was a way to kill it.
Nothing else mattered.
The corrupted fire-being shot forward not running but flying through propelling itself on jets of black flame. It moved with harrowing speed towards Hugo giant frame who barely twisted his massive body to the side. the heat of its passage washing over him.
Seizing the opening, he swung his trident aiming to end the battle in one swift strike.
But the abomination was faster then him. It leaped back with strange agility dodging the gigantic trident with ease.
Then its arms spread wide open facing Hugo direction.
From its open palms, the corrupt flames within its body gathered, focused and lastly reconstructed into a single concentrated beam of pure black fire all in a single moment.
There was no time to dodge. The subsonic attack hit him square in the chest, engulfing his gigantic frame in an instant.
Agony.
That was the only thing he felt at that moment.
A profound, soul-deep agony as the dark flames tried to devour him while.
It was a pain that rivaled the experiments of his First Nightmare, the sensation of his very flesh being cooked alive.
But the key word here was almost.
Through the torment, he persisted through the flames. His [Resistance] attribute granted by this form was amplified by [Heart of Cinders] enchantment created a desperate bulwark against the disintegration.
He could resist the flames, yes, but he could not escape it.
The sheer velocity of the flame beam pinned him in place making him feel like a bug under a magnifying glass under a cruel sun. Every second was an eternity of suffering that he could not escape.
'Well, isn't this just perfect...'
His mind raced, trying to find anything that could get him out of this situation.
But there was none, his skin was already metking and his His Memories while strong would not last forever against the heat.
'Memories...'
Suddenly, a brilliant idea came to his mind..
He summoned the [Polymorphic Crystal] and poured his essence into it activating the [Greed] enchantment.
Instantly, the tyrannical pressure of the flames lessened as the crystal began to siphon the corrupt fire treating the devastating energy as just another resource to be consumed. Hugo watched as the crystal glowed saturated with stolen power reaching its absolute limit.
Now.
He triggered it's other enchantment, [Envy].
All the stored corrupted energy was
Converted into a violent blast of kinetic force.
Hugo aimed it directly back at his attacker. The crimson energy tore through the ongoing beam. The counter-force slammed into the abomination and sent it hurtling backward. Cracks immediately appearing across its rocky armor.
Hugo didn't wait. He charged, his powerful legs carrying him forward as he merged the crystal with his trident, feeling it ascend in rank.
As the creature struggled to rise, its head—or what was supposed to be one—was met with the four sharp teeth of the Ascended trident impaling it with a sickening crunch.
But the creature was not so weak willed.
As Even with its skull pierced, it fought on, its deformed hands clawing at him desperate to bring him down.
"Just die already!" Hugo's voice was a guttural roar.
He wrenched the trident upward, the abomination's body dangling from the prongs, and slammed it down onto the hard ground with earth-shattering force Then, he brought his gigantic boot down, crushing and pressing down against the abomination while ignoring the searing heat that radiated from its broken form.
The sound of snapping rock and sizzling flesh was a drumbeat to his rage.
He discarded the trident, the creature still skewered on it and then With his bare hands, he grabbed the broken body—one hand on its legs while the other was on its torso— and pulled with all his awakened might.
CRACK.
The abomination's form groaned then resisted for a single strained moment and then it gave way under Hugo's harrowing power.
Hugo roared as he tore it clean in half.
"AHAAAAAAAAA!"
He didn't stop. The foreign emotions of the body he was inhabiting —its rage, its hate, its primal need to destroy it's opponent— consumed him entirely drowning his own fear and desperation.
He threw the separate parts to the ground and fell upon the torso, his mighty fists rising and falling in a relentless, mindless rhythm, pounding it into dust as the earth beneath him shook.
"JUST DIE DIE DIE DIE DIE DIE DIE DIE!!!"
He was screaming begging for the Spell's voice, for any sign that it was over.
His anger, his hate, his fear, and the alien madness of his form collided, each feeding the other in a vicious cycle to the point where he was no longer able to determine where his own self begun and where the transformation ended.
He was losing himself, his fragile human mind fraying at the edges being rewritten by the monster he had become.
Then right as his mind reached its breaking point, he heard the same familiar voice that brought him into this hellish place:
[Corruption purged.]
[DNA sample purified.]
[You have acquired an Essence Imprint.]
[Wake up, Paragon of Purity.]
That name. His True Name. was a anchor to his true self that no transformation could touch.
It pierced the madness reaching deep within his soul.
"Paragon of..." he whispered, the words dying on his lips as the world of fire crumbled into nothingness.
---
Hugo opened his eyes. He was back in the circular chamber, slumped against the cold marble floor.
He was human again, the Chimera's emotions gone as if they had never been taking with them the madness that had overwhelmed him.
It took him several seconds to orient himself. He was back in front of the pod that held the magma-like liquid. This time however, it was clear. The seed of corruption was completely gone, purged, leaving the contents pure and radiant.
The other nine pods on the other hand still swirled with their own dark vile seeds.
"What the hell was that..." he muttered, his voice a ragged tear in the silence. He leaned his head back against the wall, his body trembling. The adrenaline was gone, leaving only a bone-deep exhaustion and a creeping horror.
His mind replayed it, the pain, the rage, the feeling of his sanity slipping away from him all remaining inside his brain which was cursed with memory.
With that memory, came another realization.
What he had just experienced wasn't a Nightmare.
Instead It was something much worse, something generated by his own soul, his own Aspect in the same manner the nightmare spell did to creat A trial with the sole goal of purifying the corruption within the essence Imprint.
The reality of it crashed down on him. This was what his power entailed, This was his destiny.
Not just cool transformations and exciting battles but this... this uttuerly terrifying madness, this violation of his own mind, this endless war against a corruption.
And this was only the beginning of it, there was hundreds if not thousands of seeds of corruption within his soul, all nestled within the DNA sample of past Nobel creatures.
"JUST WHAT THE HELL IS THIS!" he screamed, his voice raw and desperate echoing in the sterile chamber.
His fists clenched, nails digging into his palms and painting them red. The walls of his soul sea seemed to vibrate with his emotional turmoil.
He gasped, his breathing a violent and irregular.
Hugo looked down at the Omnitrix, the source of it all. A wave of pure, undiluted revulsion washed over him.
"Curse you!" he snarled, clawing at the divine relic, trying to pry it from his wrist.
But It was futile, like trying to tear off his own soul.
"Curse the First Thinker! Curse this stupid Divine Aspect and curse my Flaw!"
He was sobbing now, tears of frustration and fear tracing paths down his cheeks. He was trapped. This power was forerver a part of him.
There was no abandoning it.
"Why?" he whispered, the fight draining out of him leaving only a weary despair. "Why me... why couldn't I have gotten a simpler aspect... a normal one..."
He cursed the world, the Nightmare Spell, his First Nightmare, the Nightmare Creatures, the dead gods and the cruel irony of fate—everything that had led him to this moment of utter powerlessness in a room of unimaginable power within his soul.
He couldn't bear it anymore. The weight of it all was simply too immense for his mind and so He fled, retreating from his own soul sea and closing his eyes tightly and seeking the only escape he had ever truly known since his mother's death.
The sweet, gentle and blessedly empty embrace of slumber.